The second volume of the special zoology on skull or vertebrates (Craniota) is now available in its third edition. Forty authors have thoroughly revised, updated, and supplemented the chapters with a number of new or improved illustrations. They describe the diversity of this animal group based on the structure, function, and performance of their organ systems. The structure of the book follows phylogenetic systematics, taking into account the results of molecular relationship analyses. The established division into a relatively concise general part, which presents the fundamental organization of this animal group from a modern perspective, and an extensive special part that deals in detail with the individual subgroups, has been retained. For all taxa, individual species, including native ones, are introduced that are phylogenetically, ecologically, behaviorally, or economically relevant.